rear suspension grease

By wartsnuff, Posted May 21, 2008

i am looking for information on re-greasing the rear suspension of my bike.

since it has been siad here they are woefully undergreased ??

anyone done any pics of the teardown ?

what excatly am i looking to grease ?

cheers

Warts

By atitagain, Posted May 21, 2008

Hey Wartsnuff,

In the tips-n-tricks section of this forum there is a suspension section that has a GREAT detailed write up about it... with pics! I re-greased mine not to long ago, it's pretty easy to do. In my 07' I did not have the "string cheese" that is talked about...so watch those needle bearings when you take the sleeve out of them! Good Luck!

By YamaLink, Posted May 21, 2008

i am looking for information on re-greasing the rear suspension of my bike.

since it has been siad here they are woefully undergreased ??

anyone done any pics of the teardown ?

what excatly am i looking to grease ?

cheers

Warts

By drtbk4ever, Posted May 21, 2008

Hey Wartsnuff,

In the tips-n-tricks section of this forum there is a suspension section that has a GREAT detailed write up about it... with pics! I re-greased mine not to long ago, it's pretty easy to do. In my 07' I did not have the "string cheese" that is talked about...so watch those needle bearings when you take the sleeve out of them! Good Luck!

Here is the link. It is in the ThumperFaq website so may be hard to find.

I myself used this thread last spring. It made the work easy for a mechanical noob like me.

By Pluto67, Posted May 21, 2008

I wonder if this is needed too. I asked exactly this to the service manager at the dealership (seems like a real honest guy - should know that I don't have a problem spending a little money on the bike). He said it wasn't needed any more on a newer bike. The factory does a much better job now than in the past with the linkage lube. He admitted that previously it was an issue

By WR450FGreg, Posted May 21, 2008

I had my new '08 WR450F's rear end apart last week to check the greasing situation. The bike has done about 400km total.

I must say that Yamaha did an acceptable job with the greasing of my bike.

It certainly wasn't a case of over-greasing, but I feel that the grease that was there was adequate for the time being.

It appeared to be run-of-the-mill molybdenum desulfide grease. (Sorry, the spelling may not be right).

By wartsnuff, Posted May 23, 2008

By dirtboogers, Posted September 10, 2008

My '07 WR450 is 11 months old. I am getting suspension re-valved this week so I figured I would re-grease all the bearings while it was apart. All were good in the linkage except one which is shot. Everything has lots of rust on it and the sleeve was frozen in place. The bike is at 100.3 hours and I'd have to guess that this bearing never had any grease on it. For those of you with new WR's, it wouldn't hurt to take the link and swingarm apart to make sure they have grease.

By neevothespaniel, Posted September 10, 2008

Thats why I pull mine apart about 3 times a year. Only takes me about 20 minutes now.

By WR450FGreg, Posted September 10, 2008

.

I'm thinking about tapping grease nipples into mine next time I have it all apart.

This would extend the intervals between the proper (pull-apart) re-greasings.

Your thoughts?

Greg

By SJMC_DON, Posted September 10, 2008

This is typical of all yamahas... this bearing gets hit by the pressure washer the most I think:excuseme: Anyway, just had to replace that one on my son's YZ125, 07'.... it was so siezed up that I had to use all sorts of implements of destruction to get the bearing races out... really sucked but lesson learned to make it routine maintenance from now on.

By MaddogYZ, Posted September 11, 2008

3 years ago I bought a new YZ250 in the crate and tore it down to grease everything and honestly it was greased quite well. Use a waterproof grease, Belray sells it in a small bowl which is perfect for greasing things by hand such as axles and bearings.

By beezer, Posted September 11, 2008

I started using moly grease at work on machinery I have to maintain and noticed that nothing wore out any more. So I started using it on my bikes with good results.

I don't think grease fittings on a Yamaha is a good idea, the grease pops the seal lips out and they don't go back in.

Most of the time water getting into where it shouldn't is from pressure washers.

By William1, Posted September 11, 2008

Beezer - You use the grease that comes in big cans?

By MaxPower, Posted September 11, 2008

Lord, SJMC Don! Howlong are you running those poor bikes? I have never ever had any of my linkages come apart like that.Yikes.

Maybe in Washington, conditions are tougher on bikes or something.

By dirtboogers, Posted September 11, 2008

This is typical of all yamahas... this bearing gets hit by the pressure washer the most I think:excuseme: Anyway, just had to replace that one on my son's YZ125, 07'.... it was so siezed up that I had to use all sorts of implements of destruction to get the bearing races out... really sucked but lesson learned to make it routine maintenance from now on.

Note that I never pressure wash and actually don't typically wash the bike at all unless I need to work on it (or it's caked with mud). This happened just through "normal" use over the last 11 months in Northern California. With only 100 hours of use in this time, I don't think Yamaha ever lubed this bearing. The rust is a stark contrast to the one right next to it in the relay unit which is in fine condition. At least it's not an expensive fix, just disappointing to see that Yamaha was inconsistent in this area of build quality.

By KAS, Posted September 11, 2008

I wonder if this is needed too. I asked exactly this to the service manager at the dealership (seems like a real honest guy - should know that I don't have a problem spending a little money on the bike). He said it wasn't needed any more on a newer bike. The factory does a much better job now than in the past with the linkage lube. He admitted that previously it was an issue

This is because he would LOVE for you to have to bring your bike down so they can bend you over for parts & labor when you need new linkage & swingarm pivot bearings in the near future.

I'm on my 3rd Yamaha now ('07 YZ250 & YZ450, '08 YZ450), and I greased the linkage on all of them when new. They all needed it. Especially the swingarm pivot.

Its not hard to do. Taking my time, I can get it done in about 2 hours now.

By SJMC_DON, Posted September 11, 2008

Lord, SJMC Don! Howlong are you running those poor bikes? I have never ever had any of my linkages come apart like that.Yikes.

Maybe in Washington, conditions are tougher on bikes or something.

That was not my pic but my son's pivot from the 125 looked exactly like that, maybe worse. I typically pull mine out at 6 mos or so and get them for the first time... I did not however do it on my son's 125. We ride and race off road a lot, and yes in the Pac NW it is wet, muddy, rocky and rooty so everything in the linkage gets a work out in what I would consider extreme conditions... my son's lower bearing seized up at 18 months.. totally my fault for not pulling it sooner:bonk: Thing is though that every other bearing in the suspension and swingarm lingage was in great shape, all I did was clean and re-pack everything else... it always seems to be this bearing that goes first and fast on all yamahas:excuseme: